Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa has arrived in the United States for a landmark official visit, his country's state news agency reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist.
Mr Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House tomorrow.
The interim leader met Mr Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president's regional tour in May.
US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said earlier this month that Mr Sharaa would "hopefully" sign an agreement to join the international US-led alliance against the Islamic State (IS).
The US plans to establish a military base near Damascus "to coordinate humanitarian aid and observe developments between Syria and Israel", a diplomatic source in Syria told AFP.
The State Department's decision on Friday to remove Mr Sharaa from the blacklist was widely expected.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Mr Sharaa's government had been meeting US demands including on working to find missing Americans and on eliminating any remaining chemical weapons.
On Thursday, the US led a vote by the Security Council to remove UN sanctions against him.
Formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda, Mr Sharaa's group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was delisted as a terrorist group by the US as recently as July.
Since taking power, Syria's new leaders have sought to break from their violent past and present a moderate image more tolerable to ordinary Syrians and foreign powers.
